Everglades City, Chokoloskee and Everglades National Park

Capt. Charles Wright
October 9, 2003
Everglades City - Saltwater Fishing Report

Everglades Grand Slam



Fishing has been excellent recently and should be that way for a good while. 

Lots of bait in the area is keeping the fish close and making them easy to pattern.  We

have had very good catches of snook, both large and small, typically

averaging 10-12 releases per day.  The redfish have been red hot ... as

good as I have seen it in years.  Trout are all over the flats.  The

tarpon bite has been steady, but the permit can be elusive.

Richard Masi and his friends from Connecticut landed cobia and goliath

grouper.  One fish about 25 pounds was released only to be immediately

chased to the bottom by his 200 pound big brother.  Luckly, he got away. 

Several other very large fish were never turned.  Snook fishing was tough

for the guys unfortunately.

George Uding (Naples) and his son-in-law, Bill Garske (Bowling Green, Ky.) had a nice

day.  Bill landed his first ever tarpon in morning. It was a small one, but

at least it was!!! George added another small fish.  Waiting

on the tide to turn, we slipped offshore to a

small piece of structure and caught Spanish mackerel until we were tired. The

guys also released approximately two dozen snook during the day.  Bill even

got a chance to toss his bait to a wild boar on the shoreline.  I actual

thought he was going to eat his bait, but white plastic did not make the cut!

April though October, around the new moon, I usually only book 1/2 day or

split day trips. The evening fishing for BIG tarpon (1/2 day) is just too good

to pass up.  George is a blast and has turned into a great client.  He is

coming back for some fly fishing, but I am going to make sure that he gets on

one of these evening tarpon trips next year.  Putting one of these

dinosaurs into the air against the setting sun is something that you will not

forget!

Joe Grande (Cleveland) and Joe Young (Phoenix) had an Everglades Grand Slam

on eight pound spinning gear with white Bass Assassins.  Tony had a nice

snook release of a fish weighing 13 lbs.  He also, released a very nice 40"

redfish tipping the scales at 23 lbs. (35 lbs by Phoenix scales!).  The

tarpon were small, but they are a blast and do they love those little white

lures!!

Scott Harris and his son Andrew had a very tough day snook fishing. Some bad

choices on my part, kept us in areas snook fishing, instead of chasing the redfish that were

biting well that day.  We caught only a few small fish throughout the day. 

The best that I can figure is we were to close to the full moon with an evening

rise and the linesiders were feeding at night.

The day started out with tarpon short-striking the lures so, we never

actually hooked a fish. That seemed to be the theme for the rest of the day ...

as least for snook.  We had some opportunities, but we did not capitalize. 

We did catch a nice mess of speckled trout, however, along with about a hundred

jacks ... and oh, yes, one flounder. Sorry guys.

A last minute cancellation allowed me to take my wife Vickie out for some

quick tarpon action early on morning.  She jumped off two fish and I, two

others before 9:00.  We were fishing but an hour before the call for

breakfast had to be answered.

Fishing should remain very good a while. The cobia have not yet showed up in

numbers, but they will anytime now.  I would suggest that if you can, get a

trip now before the cold fronts start hamming down.  The fishing should be

very strong well into November.

If you would like to book a charter with Chokoloskee

Charters, contact Capt. Charles Wright @

www.ChokoloskeeCharters.com ([email protected]) or

call him @ 239-695-9107.  Tight Lines!

More Fishing Reports:

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